Dad, you have taught me so many things: from working with the smallest screwdriver to the biggest powertools, from inventing my own little play areas (the cardboard cars I’d make!), to having the utmost desire and longing to create a business and be an entrepreneur. You have pushed me so hard and in so many ways that I don’t know where I’d be without you.

I hope you have the greatest day and year ever for years to come. I cannot wait for when we all live a street or two away from each other so we can have our big ‘ol outdoor dinners together and our “loungin-in-the-backyard” summers.

So I made this video for you, ENJOY!

Hit that Full Screen Button and crank up your sound!!!

I Love You more than you know, Happy Fathers Day!!
Matthew and Asha

Oh yeah, and Mom was a life saver in providing a lot of these photos and Asha just for being in my life. We both love you guys!!!

Well…the times are changing. And quickly. I have a TON of updates. For the record, I just got my wisdom teeth pulled (all four!) so I am isolated to my lovely Tempurpedic Cloud Supreme and my Macbook Pro. I really can’t complain! The procedure went well, the first 3 teeth were a breeze, the last one broke into 4 pieces. I wish I had been knocked out for it, but I guess that’s something you “have to ask for”. Woops!

Through all of this, I realized that I have a ton of people who care about me. And it feels good. Sometimes in life you may think that you have no one, but you should never think or feel that way. There will always be someone (it’s usually a HANDFUL of someones) who care about you. Just keep your eyes open, don’t let your life fly by without taking a piece of it and saving it in your scrapbook. You will be a much happier person coming out, believe me.

My Dad is doing very well. If you don’t know, he was called in a couple weeks ago for a kidney that he has been waiting almost 7 years for! Getting that call changed…well…everything. Years of life. Years of Happiness. Of Love. Of Romance. Of Family. I am glad to say that my Dad is strong and above most, a warrior. In fact, he came out of the hospital AFTER the transplant within a WEEK. That is almost unheard of. A WEEK! You go Dad!

Now I know it has been a while since I have posted. Life has been crazy (can’t you tell?) But I do have a LOT in the works. Affiliate Marketing is booming these days and Video Production is at an all time high. And I am amidst all of it!

The Super Computer

or

I am in the works of building a super computer that will run Mac OS X easily (yes most call this a Hackintosh). I have been looking to upgrade my system to a new 8 or 12 core Mac Pro but at $4 to $8 grand (base to halfway loaded) I can’t fathom wasting that much money on a system. Granted, I LOVE Apple. I am an APPLE addict. Ask anyone around me…I live and BREATHE Apple. But in the end, I can build a system that can keep up with (in most cases BLOW the PANTS off of) a new Mac Pro for a fraction of the price.

Think about it, if you have the budget for a $5,000 Mac Pro, why wouldn’t you build a comparable machine for $2,000 (yes this machine will surpass the “Pro”) and put the rest of the money towards your render farm? (A render farm – or cluster – is a second computer or multiple computers used in conjunction with your main computer to render content together) What would you do? You can build a pretty sweet basic machine for this purpose for AT MOST $1,000.

Let’s do the math, in the end – you’ll have a gorgeous Hack Pro that’s quick, highly customizable, and EXACTLY what you want…and with a budget of $5,000 you’ll also have 3 other lesser “hack pros” that you can use in your Render Farm.

Hack Pro

I will be building this super computer over the next month or so and documenting the process. I will be putting together a nice post AND video of the whole process, from start to finish, of how to accomplish this. If anyone has a Mac Pro that has been benchmarked that is similar to what I’m going to be building, let me know the numbers and we’ll measure ‘em up!

Now I don’t want any haters…I love Apple, I can’t say that enough. I was in LOVE with the new Mac Pros (it was a horrible horrible love affair, it got more attention than my own girlfriend, Asha). In fact, if I had a few thousand to BLOW on computers (or a nice business loan) I would purchase 3 Mac Pro’s and be done with it. Myself, like many others, are looking to SAVE money on equipment that can perform as well as more expensive equipment. I mean, that’s why we advertise on the internet right? It’s cheaper and captures a much wider range of prospects then conventional and traditional wisdom.

So come and take this adventure with me. This is just a quick write up of the hardware I will be using. I may change this when it comes to purchase time though.

The PARTS:

Gigabyte GA-X58A-UD5 motherboard

Intel i7-970 Gulftown 3.2 GHz six core processor

Sapphire Radeon HD 5870

NZXT Phantom case

XION Power Real 1100W supply

Corsair XMS3 12gb Ram (DDR3)

OCZ Vertex 2 120GB Solid State Drive

WD Caviar Green 2TB secondary drive

I have a few more “smaller” things I will be purchasing for this project, but all in all…on Newegg this setup goes for $2,768. And that INCLUDES two 24″ monitors, SSD boot drive, tons of accessories, and the six core processor. If you wanted something that would still be extremely fast you can ditch the 2 monitors (hell, you probably already HAVE 2 monitors!), switch the SSD for a regular drive, and go for the MUCH cheaper i7 Quad core. You are looking at a computer that costs around $1,200. Crazy right?!

Stay tuned, I will be posting up many how-to’s on this whole project as well as a bunch of stuff dealing with internet marketing, video production, videography, and LIFE!

Asha and I added a new member to our small family! His name is Nikko. In Japanese it means “Daylight”…which is fitting because we both feel that Nikko is our daylight. I compiled a short video of our little man for you. This is the morning after picking him up from my breeder Joni Morningstar of Morningstar Shibas.

Did I mention he is a show dog? and comes from world champion lines?

ENJOY!

It has literally been ages since I have posted and I apologize. That will all change soon. A very important women in my life told me that if you have too many hobbies, it is impossible to reminisce on them all. I would have to agree. I find myself in a multitude of different projects. A few of which are extremely fun. Okay, okay…all of them are fun.

Here is a quick recap of the last few months. I went on an amazing cruise through Alaska with Princess Cruises, grew extremely close to my sister, Jaime Mintun, met a very special lady whom I have grown to love, bought a Mercedes, recorded an EP, and have not seen my closest friends enough.

Let’s start out with the new toys:

I know you guys remember the GTO.

Here’s the new toy:

And I have another surprise…Asha bought a 1989 Bronco that we are going to fix up! This last weekend we redid the whole exhaust system. The past owner was apparently not all there.

Here’s a nice before and after:

[flv:/movies/bronco.flv 425 318]

Turns out the previous owner was running straight cats. Now if that wasn’t enough, check this out…he cut the header on the passenger side between the Y-pipe and the manifold. This guy had the passenger side running straight headers and the drivers side running cats only. Who was this guy?

I am excited for the future of this beast. We have plans to build it into a 4×4 beast…but it is still Asha’s truck, so it will be her hobby…I’m just going to help (shhh don’t tell her that)

I have made quite a few new friends since I have lived out here in Irvine and I have to admit, I am quite happy. They have been the best part of my life since I have moved and it has helped me grow into what I am becoming.

Of course these guys have always been there for me: Jimmy, Mark, and Brian.

This was a fun trip to San Diego to party!!! Nick and Nick in the front seat, Nicole, and of course Jimmy!

Oh to the wonderful nights like this. You wouldn’t know it, but we were literally the only people there (of course Brian is here but not in the picture)…we know how to make our own parties

You might not know it, but these guys owned that fateful night in San Diego

These two…not so much! Good memories had by all!

Now

on to Asha…turns out my friend Nick has a cousin. Actually we all typically do. I didn’t know this when I met her though. Basically it ended up turning into “Hey we are basically family!” I won’t steal the context away with the juicy details, the mystery is much more exciting.

I knew I wanted to be with her as soon as she started snoring on my shoulder. Luckily for us, well…me, she decided to go through the tonsil removal surgery. Say goodbye to snoring!

Stay tuned, I will definitely have many adventure posts about us in the wild, driving up north, going to Arizona, taking cruises, flying to crazy countries, and making the best of life. Isn’t that what life is about?

Make Life Happen

I will admit, within all of this excitement, I find myself both sad and happy for one particular reason. Jaime decided to take a leap and leave. She is now traveling the world with her life packed into her BMW. Some call it crazy (yes they actually did Jaime), but I call it purity. Make life happen. I will be meeting her in various cities, countries, what-have-you during her journey to make a small journey of my own.

We are all different and to me, having a home base is my happiness. Having spontaneous adventures is my cocaine.

New Trades, New Marksmen, New Philosophy

I have taken it upon myself to do things as they come up. If I have a sudden craving to do something I will do it. The newest trade in this sense is video editing. Funny how things just fall into place when you least expect them to. I have a new desire to start video editing and have actually been putting it to the test. Both for me and for business. Myogenics Fitness has quite a few of my videos, but those are more simple.

I will be putting together more videos for my personal enjoyment as time moves on. You can find my videos either by the link at the top or by clicking here. Below you will find my very first Matthew Production “Yoad to Rosemite”, which is an adventure my buddy Jimmy and I went on at the last minute up to Yosemite (from Orange County), a good 18 hours of driving. Oh yeah, did I mention we only stayed there for about 40 minutes for a beer? -classic-

Yoad to Rosemite

[flv:/movies/yoadtorosemite.flv 400 300]

Model Cars? Are we 5?

I also found out Asha likes building model cars…I know most people probably think this is nerdy, but when I was younger I took pride in the model Skill Level 3′s I would build! It only stopped because I was overwhelmed. eBay had just made its appearance to the world and my Mom and I were HOOKED! I am talkin’…new auctions every night that we were watching! Funny because those days, they didn’t have automatic bidding, they didnt have DSL, they didn’t have Buy it Now. All they had was a “Bid Now” button and you would enter your bid. I remember hitting refresh every few seconds to see if we won, and every time having to wait that 6-10 seconds for it to load!

It turned into a family event! Refreshing as the seconds counted down to find out if you had either won or lost. That was where we went wrong and eBay went right! It turned into a game! And you know what? WE ALL LOVE TO PLAY IT! However, I digress…

My Mom loved eBay so much that within a week I had atleast 20 boxes worth of models sitting on the front step. Multiply that by a months worth of eBayism…you have a slight dilemma on your hands! I actually found myself overwhelmed. Just recently I sold a few of my old models for other hobbyist’s to build, but I am excited to say that I still have many many models left to choose from for Asha and I to build! Is that nerdy? I hope so!

Where…

It took a close friend two sentences to change my whole scope on my future. No I’m not talking about business…I am talking about a little place called Colorado.

Jimmy and I were talking one day and he says “I think I am going to move to Colorado and work for a few months, want to come?”

I was quick to say “dude, YEA!” but then I realized I was stuck into a current lease on my current house. However, this has changed, I find myself wanting to live in Colorado! Although this is a couple years down the road, you just never know what could happen…I’m keeping my eyes open.

Well, that is all for now. I know there are pages and pages of new happenings I could post about, but I am positive it would freeze up my server. I promise I will update sooner then 5 months down the road. Take care.